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Social media you can drink. But will you want to?

In the all-encompassing world of social media, a growing number of brands are turning to consumers to help design new products. And for good reason: the internet and social media have given brands new ways to solicit feedback from their consumers and to involve them in product design and marketing.

There are a lot of things to like about consumer crowdsourcing but one of them unlikely to be the new ‘Connect‘ VitaminWater from Coca-Cola subsidiary Glacéau.

As the name suggests, Glacéau turned to Facebook, where it now has more than 1m fans, to develop its new Connect flavor for VitaminWater. To promote its Facebook ‘flavorcreator‘, Glacéau enlisted two of its celebrity endorsers, rapper 50 Cent and professional basketball player Steve Nash. The final outcome: a black cherry-lime flavored drink filled with eight wonderful nutrients and a healthy dose of caffeine.

Glacéau announced the drink on Facebook in true Facebook fashion:

unlike the never-ending debate over whether it’s rock-paper-scissors or paper-rock-scissors, based on your votes and your designs, the latest flavor of vitaminwater has FINALLY been decided… introducing the black cherry-lime flavored vitaminwater named… connect! check out this new package- flavor & ingredients, name & label design- all inspired by you- our fans. it’s got 8 key nutrients plus caffeine. thanks for all your help- especially to the grand prize winner Sarah from Illinois and the four other finalist http://budurl.com/q27w. vitaminwater connect will be available in stores nationwide in march this year- so until then, stay hydrated- and keep your eyes here for news, updates and special offers for connect, including a possible sneak tasting opportunity. and btw… it’s rochambeau!

The crowdsourced drink’s label sports a Facebook logo and has a description that may spark more than an electrolyte imbalance when read.

So what to make of Connect? Some seem to like the initiative. But I wonder how many of those who like it will actually rush out to buy the drink when it hits the shelves. My guess: not many.

The problem, as I see it, is that Connect is all novelty. There’s nothing remotely interesting about Connect’s black cherry-lime flavor, the eight nutrients it contains or the obligatory caffeine that’s added. Which isn’t surprising given that using VitaminWater’s ‘flavorcreator‘ Facebook app wasn’t exactly a free-form exercise.

In short, Connect is indistinguishable from what Glacéau might have come up with on its own. And the less-than-creative name (Connect) and trite, trying-way-too-hard-to-be-cool description that adorns the label don’t add much character. Perhaps VitaminWater Connect will make a splash, but I doubt that will have anything to do with the name or process, both of which I’d best describe as ‘uninspiring‘.

That said, there’s no reason brands like VitaminWater have to utilize crowdsourcing in a more ‘serious‘ fashion (a la MyStarbucksIdea and Dell Ideastorm). But as with social media in general, whatever they do, authenticity and creativity are prerequisites for success. Novelty? That’s so 2008.

Recommended

I’ve been following the debate recently caused by Facebook’s latest change to their privacy policy, which seems to have got everyone talking about just how much privacy people should expect when they’re ‘living’ in a social world.

Whilst I agree that people need to be clear on exactly which bits of their information is being shared and which is private, I don’t think this is worth the furore that it’s currently causing. Here’s why…

Thanks to recent changes to Facebook’s privacy settings, marketers are now able to mine data from Facebook profiles that have limited their shared information to the least amount possible. Blogger Max Klein has found a loophole that allows marketers to compile consumers’ name, age, and other personal data with the simple help of an email address.

According to Wired: “Given Facebook’s ubiquity and most people’s reliance on a single e-mail address, the harvest could be quite rich.” But marketers have long been able to compile such data, and they don’t necessarily need Facebook to do it.

Late night talk show hosts are taking sides at NBC. The network announced this week that it will be moving Jay Leno’s show back to 11:30P. That could have major repercussions for the rest of their lineup. And put Conan O’Brien in a weird position, with his Tonight Show technically starting tomorrow, at 12:05A.

Conan decided today that he’s not going to accomodate Leno. He released a response to the internet today announcing his refusal to bend to NBC’s will. Within minutes, Conan fans and supporters took to the internet to express outrage over how he is being treated. Which means that NBC may have mistakenly stepped into a (at least temporary) solution to its ratings dilemmas — angry digital consumers tuning into Conan’s show.

Companies are pouring billions of dollars a year into social media and influencer marketing campaigns, many of which target consumers on Facebook-owned Instagram, in an effort to parlay social engagement into sales.